The Effectiveness Combined Program based on the Theory of Mind Method and the Floortime Method Stereotypical Behaviorsof Children with Autism Disorder

Autism disorder is usually characterized by the inabilityto understand and interpret emotional and social signs andsignals, the lack or weakness of paying attention to whatothers pay attention to, and the inability to understand thedirect and fluent concepts of other people's thoughts andfeelings. The current research was conducted with the aimof the effectiveness of the combined program based onthe theory of mind method and the flower time method onthe stereotyped behaviors of children with autismspectrum disorder. The current research project is adevelopmental-applicative goal, and it is semiexperimental in terms of implementation method. Thepopulation of the present study was all children aged 2 to5 years with autism spectrum disorder who referred toAutism center of Rafsanjan, who were willing tocooperate and participate in the meetings on behalf ofthemselves and their families. The sample included 5children between 25 and 5 years old with autism spectrumdisorder. These people were selected as a purposivesampling and investigated in a single group study with asingle subject design. The research tool was GilliamGazer's (1994) questionnaire. The results showed that thecombined training method based on the theory of mindmethod and the flortime method had an effect on thescores of stereotyped behaviors with a recoverypercentage between 14 and 46 percent. It seems that theintervention based on the theory of mind method and theflower time method can be effective in reducingstereotypic behavior in the adaptation of children withautism.